BOOK REVIEW: A CHILD ALONE WITH STRANGERS BY PHILIP FRACASSI

3/10/2022

Philip Fracassi’s outstanding second novel effortlessly
blends monster horror with the kidnapping of a child

A Child Alone with Strangers: A Novel by Philip Fracassi

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Talos (22 Dec. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945863749
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945863745

A Horror Book Review by Tony Jones

Over recent times the career of Philip Fracassi has picked up serious traction and his second novel A Child Alone with Strangers is guaranteed to create even more buzz. His limited-edition debut novel Boys in the Valley became such a highly valued collector’s edition that even the great Stephen King himself tweeted about his troubles in snagging one of the 500 (rare as gold dust) copies! This new wave of interest in Fracassi’s work is well deserved and those first-timers dipping into his outstanding back-catalogue are in for a rare treat with two full collections of short stories Behold the Void (2017) and Beneath a Pale Sky (2021) being terrific introductions. Fracassi also has a range of impressive novellas, my favourites being Sacculina (2017), Shiloh (2018) and Commodore (2021).

His 2021 jump to the longer novel format with Boys in the Valley was totally seamless and this has been consolidated by the highly ambitious A Child Alone with Strangers, which at over 550 pages is by far his longest and more ambitious work to date. Early praise for the novel was universal, with Laird Barron noting “Fracassi’s novel hits me like a cross between McCammon and '80s King. Might be one of them summer blockbusters readers love.” This is a banger of a comparison and I had already thought of McCammon before I came across the quote, but was thinking more of McCammon’s later, more mature work, in particular The Listener, which this book is most reminiscent of.

If you were to sum-up the plot of A Child Alone with Strangers in a couple of sentences it would undoubtedly resemble one of many trashy horror titles from the seventies or eighties, but in reality due to the depth of characterisation, particularly the boy Henry Thorne, and the compassion the reader feels for the child the novel soars above most genre fiction. Even though the action is beyond preposterous it reads as smartly as the best literary fiction with Fracassi nailing sentences to the page like an old master. 550+ is long for a kidnapping/monster novel, but it never became a slog and I whizzed through it over three days with Henry, the entity and the darkening circumstances getting well and truly under my skin. Hell, even though there are some truly brutal body horror style killings you will still end up feeling compassion for the creature!

Although the novel is seen in the third person from multiple perspectives it is Henry Thorne who steals the show, but he is satellited by a group of adults who all want something from him in varying degrees. After an incredibly powerful and heart-breaking opening Henry is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest. However, coincidentally shortly before being snatched, due to a very serious accident Henry begins to develop ESP type powers and connects with a strange force living in the woods. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this force has its own reasons for wanting the kidnappers gone and as the novel moves through the gears with some great set pieces, suspense and riveting moments. Although the action was restrained for much of the time, hold onto your hat for a truly outstanding and bloody final one-hundred pages where everything goes to hell in the most memorable of finishes.

A Child Alone with Strangers was a fine example of old-school horror where the monsters of the humankind were just as nasty (or worse) than the creatures and as things develop you might start cheering for a different side. The support characters were equally well fleshed out, from the distraught uncle and aunt to the FBI investigator leading the search. The kidnappers themselves had varying amount of page time with the main players being Liam and Jim who had very different relationships with the boy. The setting was terrific and virtually all readers are guaranteed to feel the isolation and despair of the boy as he has to survive in a freezing cold room, whilst battling a host of internal demons.

It is not easy maintaining tension for so long in such a chunky book, and even though the FBI seemed to be scratching their heads for slightly too long, it was a fascinating journey that nicely balanced the monster horror with the kidnapping angle. Both were equally believable and when mixed with feuding kidnappers and Henry’s developing powers everything evolves into an explosive mix with an ending which is a sheer barrage of non-stop visceral horror and some truly breath-taking sequences which were vicious throwbacks to seventies and eighties era horror.

Authors do occasionally explode (not literally!) and should the next name to go supernova be Philip Fracassi then it is well deserved with A Child Alone with Strangers being a quality follow up to Boys in the Valley. If you have never tried this author you will never have a better opportunity.

Tony Jones

A Child Alone with Strangers by Philip Fracassi

“Fracassi’s novel hits me like a cross between McCammon and '80s King. Might be one of them summer blockbusters readers love.” --Laird Barron, author of Worse Angels

"A Child Alone with Strangers starts out as a slow burn procedural with supernatural elements and inexorably cranks itself into a pulse-pounding symphony of eldritch horrors and all-too-human violence. Philip Fracassi is the best sort of horror writer--one who is unafraid to hunt for light in even the darkest places." --Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters

When young Henry Thorne is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods—using that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting the interlopers gone—there is something hidden beneath the house, tucked away in the dark, damp root cellar . . . waiting for its return.